Wheat takes up more space than any other crop, and it is a popular cereal that is eaten all around the world. It accounts for 19% of calories and 21% of the protein consumed by humans worldwide. Fusarium head blight is a fungal disease that can infect wheat harvests and pollute the grain with toxins.

According to a University of Bath study, wheat in Europe is contaminated with toxic mycotoxins, which cause sickness in humans and animals. It affects nearly half of European wheat harvests. Vomitoxin was discovered in 70% of the food wheat produced in the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2019.

To protect consumers, the EU Commission established legal limitations on vomitoxin levels in food-grade wheat. Grain that has been considered too polluted for human consumption is frequently reclassified as animal feed. Downgrading comes at a cost to farmers and the economy because the animal feed has a lower monetary value than food.

Almost all of the vomitoxin contamination in European wheat (95%) was within the acceptable limit. This demonstrates that existing legislation and monitoring of FHB mycotoxin levels in food effectively protect European consumers from acute illness. Mycotoxins, which include deoxynivalenol, also known as vomitoxin. It poses a risk to human and livestock health and it can cause vomiting, intestinal damage, a weaker immune system, hormone disruption, and cancer.

Low-level dietary exposure to mycotoxins can affect human health. One-quarter of the vomitoxin-contaminated wheat also included other FHB mycotoxins, raising worries about synergism, which occurs when toxins interact with one another and cause more harm than the sum of the individual toxins acting alone. Vomitoxin concentrations exceeding regulatory limits were found in 5% of European wheat cultivated for human consumption. If all of the impacted wheat was redirected to animal feed, wheat producers would lose €3 billion (£2.6 billion).

Mycotoxin levels in food and animal feed supply chains are routinely monitored by governments and agribusinesses. However, the extent of FHB mycotoxin contamination in European wheat supplies is unknown, and the economic impact has not previously been quantified. We studied the largest available mycotoxin datasets with colleagues from the universities of Bath and Exeter and discovered that FHB mycotoxins are common in wheat grown for food and animal feed across Europe. We also discovered that the hazard of mycotoxins is growing over time, notably in southern Europe.

This disease varies from year to year. But Vomitoxin concentrations were highest during the 2018 and 2019 outbreak years. The study did not look into the causes of this rise. However, changes in farming practices, climate change, and fungicide effectiveness are all probable contributory factors.

In the Minimum tillage farming method, the land is cultivated using methods other than ploughing to avoid soil disturbance. The method is good for soil health, but it leaves crop detritus behind, allowing the FHB fungus to survive the winter. Climate change may potentially aid in the spread of FHB. Warmer and wetter weather, coinciding with wheat flowering, creates ideal conditions for the FHB fungus to infect and produce mycotoxins.  Resistance to azoles fungicide has become more common in recent years. But Fusarium fungal species are resistant to these fungicides because of repeated exposure.

The researchers believe that by highlighting the scope of the Fusarium mycotoxin problem, their research will emphasize the necessity of regulating mycotoxins and spur additional research. As mycotoxin outbreaks become more severe as a result of climate change, this issue will only become more severe.